As Los Angeles County continues efforts to move its juvenile justice system in a direction that emphasizes diversion over incarceration, supervisors hope to leverage arts programming as part of a broader set of reforms.
Arts-oriented programming has long played a role in the nation’s largest juvenile justice systems, but L.A. County leaders hope a grant from one of the nation’s leading funders will expand these services. A one-year, $750,000 grant from the Ford Foundation’s Art for Justice Fund will help launch the Arts and Youth Development Project, intended to serve youth and families at risk of involvement or already involved with the juvenile justice system, according to a December 2018 report by the Chronicle of Social Change. A motion adopted by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors directs multiple county agencies to collaborate with the Los Angeles Arts Commission to assess the availability of arts programming for justice system-involved youth and develop a plan for increasing access.
The Ford Foundation launched the Art For Justice Fund in 2017 with the help of philanthropist and art collector Agnes Gund. Proceeds from the sale of art in Gund’s personal collection started the fund. Ford partners with Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors to manage the fund’s grantmaking activities.
[For more on this story by L.S. Hall, go to https://www.insidephilanthropy...enile-justice-reform]
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